“The Metaphor,” by Budge Wilson, is a short story about a young girl, Charlotte, coming of age. It begins with Charlotte as a seventh grader stuck between the two poles of her life: her teacher and mother. During the course of this bildungsroman, there are many techniques the author uses to strengthen and amplify its theme of growing up. Through the use of motif, juxtaposition, and symbolism, the reader is aware of the protagonist’s growth. In the story, the most potent motif is the metaphor. Even the title hints to the extreme importance of this literary device to the character. The reader is first introduced to Charlotte when she learns about the metaphor from her exuberant and flamboyant teacher: Miss Hancock. When Charlotte presents her metaphor for the class, both the reader and Miss Hancock are shocked by the maturity and advancement of her metaphor. Also, it is no mistake that this metaphor is about her “perfect” mother. Miss Hancock asks her if she would like to discuss the metaphor about her mother. However, …show more content…
However, the most prominent symbol in the short story is the bathtub. The bathtub provided Charlotte a refuge away from the cold rationalism that filled her life. When Charlotte talked with Julia (her friend) about how she loves baths, she described it as “therapeutic” and a place for “kids to play with water when they are wild and upset.” This is why it was no surprise that the tub is the safe haven where Charlotte would secretly create metaphors. The bathtub is a place of privacy where one is shielded from the outside world and has time to self-reflect. Charlotte, thus, could freely make metaphors without her mother’s knowledge. However, she had no need to hide her true personality when she finally grew up. Charlotte makes her metaphor of Miss Hancock right in the open because she is no longer afraid of showing her creative
In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua describes her experiences as a self proclaimed Chicana. She uses rhetorical strategies, including anecdotes, imagery, and appeals to both ethos and pathos, to argue that language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one’s culture, identity, and self-expression, Gloria Anzaldua opens her argument with an anecdote. The anecdote about the dentist introduces the concept of the wild tongue and how it can be taken literally and symbolically. Another effect the anecdote has is that it hooks the reader and gets them interested in the essay. Through the anecdote Anzaldua appeals to ethos, establishing the ethical ideas of her purpose with taming her wild tongue and to establish her identity as a Chicano speaker.
In the short story On the Bridge by Todd Strasser, the character Seth demonstrated coming of age as the story progressed. At the beginning of the story we are introduce to both Adam and Seth. Adam is the kind of kid that would fit the personality of an outlaw, someone who disobeys orders and does not let anyone get in his way. This is shown in the very first sentence of the text when Strasser writes “I beat the crap out of this guy at the mall yesterday.” When Seth asks Adam why he had done such a thing, Adam replies “He just bugged me, that’s all.”
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Changeling”, the hardships of gender stereotypes are exposed. The contrast between a young girl’s imagination and the reality of her gender role is clear by her attempt to appease her parents. She is neither manly enough to gain the attention of her father nor womanly enough to attain the respect of her mother. Her dilemma of not being able to fit in is emphasized by Cofer’s use of imagery and repetition.
Just as Shakespeare did, she uses a comparison to a relatable subject. She used her literature as her child, but unlike Shakespeare, she does not believe that her subject is perfect. Charlotte referred from the beginning of the piece to the work being “ill-formed” meaning full of grammatical mistakes and how the work no matter how much she tried to mend it she still did not see it as perfect. Both poets also hold a very close relationship to the subject of the poem. The attachments are alike in the matter that the author uses common metaphors.
The short story, “The Metaphor,” by Budge Wilson is the story of Charlotte and her personal growth through her relationship with her teacher Miss Hancock. Charlotte enjoyed Miss Hancock’s class in 7th grade and was actively engaged in the class, especially when it came to the use of metaphors. As Charlotte grew older she happened to again have Miss Hancock as a teacher in 10th grade, she then felt too mature for her teaching method and distanced herself. In the climax Miss Hancock died and Charlotte’s mother lacked any sympathy, Charlotte then had an epiphany and knew that what matters is personality not social standards or external beauty. Through the use of detail, symbolism, and metaphor, Wilson creates a quality coming of age story that shows the importance of inner beauty through the transformation of Charlotte.
The movie demonstrated how institutions defined womens through showing how the men in the movie more or less went “we don’t like this about women, so anyone has these traits must have a disorder.” Charlotte repeatedly told Dr. Granville what she realized was “wrong,” with the women and the absurdity of treatment of it. However, every time, Granville brushed her off, informing her that because he was a doctor, he knew more about women than her, a woman. The men of the movie were too blinded by their own notions and ideologies to look past their ignorance.
Metaphors Wonderful words gathered to mean what they do not mean apart. They have the power of conveying meanings, ordinary words can only dream of. Emotions, their seeds.
Throughout Boy’s Life, the author uses figurative language to emphasize theme, setting and character transformation. Without the incorporation of literary devices, such as: simile, metaphor and personification, the novel would lose its intricacy. In the novel, figurative language played an important role in emphasizing the theme of change. As the novel progresses, readers witness the changes that both Tom and Cory experience.
According to Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, metaphors are used for “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (pg 6). In other words, a metaphor is explaining or describing one thing as if it was something else. They explain two kinds of metaphors in the book. The first type of metaphor that the book mentions is a “structural metaphor” in which “one concept is metaphorically structured in terms of another” (pg 15). The other type the book mentions is an “orientational metaphor” which “organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another” (pg 15).
Point The author of “The Yellow Wallpaper” utilizes similes in order to give the reader an image of what the main character is describing. Evidence 1 Main character compares a specific pattern on the wallpaper to a “broken neck” and “two bulbous eyes staring at you upside down.” This successfully creates a clear image of what the main character is describing.
The Literal Mother versus the Figurative Mother: the difference in styles is all that matters “The Metaphor” by George Wilson illustrates two static characters: Miss. Hancock and Charlotte’s mother who both insist on their own principals throughout the story. Clearly, just like Charlotte’s mother, Miss Hancock is loving and caring, such that she renders herself the figurative mother of Charlotte who is respected and loved by her. However, the discrepancy between their styles of expressing their love makes Charlotte to favor Miss Hancock.
Metaphors assist with significant pedagogical functions such as description, explanation, and evaluation (Corts & Pollio, 1999; Cameron, 2003). They are also influential in the creation of